Caddo

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Caddo

File:Bandera Caddo.PNG Tribal flag
Regions with significant populations
United States Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas
Languages
Caddo, English
Religion
Native American Church, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Pawnee, Wichita,Kitsai Caddo Confederacy: Adai, Cahinnio, Eyeish, Hainai, Hasinai, Kadohadacho, Nabedache, Nabiti, Nacogdoche, Nadaco, Nacogdoche, Nanatsoho, Nasoni, Natchitoches, Nechaui, Neche, Ouachita, Tula, Yatasi

The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma, and the different Caddo languages have converged into a single language.

Government and civic institutions

The Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a federally recognized tribe. They were previously known as the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma. A tribal constitution provides for a tribal council consisting of eight members with a chairperson, based in Binger, Oklahoma. Their tribal complex, dance grounds, and the Caddo Heritage Museum are located south of Binger. 5000 people are enrolled in the tribe, with 2500 living within the state of Oklahoma. The tribe operates its own housing authority and issues its own tribal vehicle tags. They maintain administrative centers, dance grounds, several community centers, and a very active NAGPRA office.

Several programs exist to invigorate Caddo traditions. The tribe sponsors a summer culture camp for children. The Hasinai Society and Caddo Culture Club both keep Caddo songs and dances alive, while the Kiwat Hasinay Foundation is dedicated to preserving the Caddo language.

Current tribal officials

• Chairperson: Brenda Shemayme Edwards
• Vice-chairperson: Todd Downing Goodman
• Treasurer: Barbara Barr
• Representative, Binger: Marilyn Williams Threlkeld
• Representative, Oklahoma City: Jennifer Reeder Crump

Precontact traditions

Caddo turkey dance, Caddo National Complex, Binger, Oklahoma, 2000. The turkey dance relays Caddo history.

Caddo oral history says the tribe emerged from an underground cave, called Chahkanina or "the place of crying," located at the confluence of the Red and Mississippi Rivers in northern Louisiana. Their leader, named Moon, instructed the people not to look back. An old Caddo man carried with him a drum, a pipe, and fire, all of which are important religious items. His wife carried corn and pumpkin seeds. As people and accompanying animals emerged, the wolf looked back and the exit was closed to the remaining people and animals.

The Caddo peoples moved west along the Red River, or Bah'hatteno in Caddo. A Caddo woman, Zacado, instructed the tribe in hunting, fishing, home construction, and clothing. Caddo religion focuses on Kadhi háyuh, translating to "Lord Above" or "Lord of the Sky." In early times, they were led by priests, including a head priest, the xinesi, who could commune with spirits residing near Caddo temples. A cycle of ceremonies corresponded to corn cultivation. Tobacco was and is used ceremonially. Early priests drank a purifying sacrament made of wild olive leaves.

They developed their culture in Arkansas and Louisiana and spread out to the south and west from there. The Wichita and Pawnee are related to the Caddo, a fact attested to in that the Wichita and Pawnee spoke Caddoan languages. Between 500 and 800 CE, the Caddo emerged as distinct and separate nation. They were moundbuilders, known for their longstanding ceramic tradition and use of copper, brought in from the Great Lakes region. Their artistic skills and mound-building flourished during the 12h and 13th centuries. Spiro mounds, some of the most elaborate in the United States, were made by ancestors of the Caddo and Wichita.

The Caddo were maize farmers and enjoyed good growing conditions most of the time. However, the Pineywoods were affected by the Great Drought, from 1276–1299 CE.

The Caddo tribes were divided into three confederacies, the Hasinai, Kadohadacho, and Natchitoches, and also other loosely affiliated tribes. The Haisinai lived in East Texas, the Kadohadacho lived near the border of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, and the Natchitoches lived in now northern Louisiana.

Geography

Sho-e-tat (Little Boy) or George Washington (1816-1883), Louisiana Caddo leader

The Caddo lived in the Piney Woods eco-region of the United States up to the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and often near the Caddo River. The Piney Woods is a dense forest of deciduous and conifer flora covering rolling hills, steep river valleys, and intermittent wetlands called Bayous. Several Caddo villages were resettled, including the community of Elysian Fields, Texas, and Nacogdoches and Natchitoches both of which have kept their original names. The Caddo were progressively moved further west until they reached what is now western Oklahoma. The geography of the drier plains was quite a contrast to the lush hilly forest that were formerly their homeland. The Caddo's food varied in many types, the most common being dried corn. Sunflower seeds and pumpkins were also important staples with cultural significance, as were wild turkeys.

Post-contact history

A stirrup dance by the Caddo Culture Club, Caddo National Complex, Binger, 2008

The Caddo first encountered Europeans in 1541 when the Hernando de Soto Expedition came through their lands. De Soto's force had a violent clash with one band of Caddo Indians, the Tula, near Caddo Gap, Arkansas. This event is marked by a monument that stands in the small town today.

With the arrival of missionaries from Spain and France a small pox epidemic broke out that decimated the population. Measles, influenza, and malaria also devastated the Caddo.

Caddos negotiated with Spanish, French, and finally Anglo-American settlers. After the 1803 Louisiana Purchase the United States government sought to ally the Caddos. In 1835 the Kadohadacho, the northernmost Caddo confederacy, signed a treaty with the US to relocate to then Mexico, which rapidly transformed to the Republic of Texas. "Texas" comes from the Hasinai word táysha?, meaning "friend."

In 1845 both the Hasinai and the Kadohadacho were relocated onto the Brazos Reservation, when Texas became a state. In 1859 many of the Caddo were relocated to Indian Territory. After the Civil War, the Caddo were concentrated on a reservation located between the Washita and Canadian Rivers.

John Wilson (1860-1901), Caddo peyote roadman

In the late 19th century, the Ghost Dance religion came to the Caddo. John Wilson, a Caddo-Delaware medicine man who spoke only Caddo, was an influential leader in the Ghost Dance. In 1880, Wilson became a peyote roadman. The tribe was exposed to the Half Moon peyote ceremony, but Wilson introduced the Big Moon ceremony to the tribe. The Caddo tribe remains very active in the Native American Church today.

After the turn of the century the Curtis Act dismantled tribal institutions, and the Dawes Act broke tribal landholdings into individual allotments. Allotment was vigorously opposed by the Caddo. Whitebread, a Caddo leader, said, that "because of their peaceful lives and friendship to the white man, and through their ignorance were not consulted, and have been ignored and stuck away in a corner and allowed to exist by sufferance."

The Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act of 1936 provided the opportunity to reform the Caddo tribal government, and they organized in 1938, as the Caddo Indian Tribe of Oklahoma. They ratified their constitution on 17.January.1938. In 1976, they drafted a new consitution in 1976. During the 20th century, Caddo leaders such as Melford Williams, Harry Guy, Hubert Halfmoon, and Vernon Hunter have shaped the tribe.

In a special election on 29.June.2002, six amendments were made to the constitution. Tribal enrollment is open to individuals with a documented minimum of 1/16 degree Caddo blood.

Notable Caddo

• T. C. Cannon, Kiowa-Caddo-Choctaw artist
• LaRue Parker, former tribal chairperson
• John Wilson, peyote roadman

See also

• Caddoan village bundle
• Caddo Lake
• List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition
• Spiro Mounds

References

• Bolton, Herbet E. The Hasinais: Southern Caddoans As Seen by the Earliest Europeans. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0806134413.
• Carter, Cecile Elkins. Caddo Indians: Where We Come From. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. ISBN 0-806-13318-X
• Fford, Cressida, Jane Hubert, and Paul Turnbull. The Dead and their Possessions: Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice. New York: Routledge, 2004. ISBN 978-0415344494.
• Stewart, Omer Call. Peyote Religion: A History. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0806124575.
• Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN 0-16-072300-0.

Bibliography

• Dorsey, George Amos. Traditions of the Caddo. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997. ISBN 0-803-26602-2
• LaVere, David. The Caddo Chiefdoms: Caddo Economics and Politics, 1700-1835. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998. ISBN 0-803-22927-5
• Newkumet, Vynola Beaver and Howard L. Meredith. Hasinai: A Traditional History of the Caddo People. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1988. ISBN 0-890-96342-8
• Perttula, Timothy K. The Caddo Nation: Archaeological and Ethnohistoric Perspectives. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. ISBN 0-292-76574-6
• Smith, F. Todd. The Caddo Indians: Tribes at the Convergence of Empires, 1542-1854. College Station: Texas A&M Press, 1995. ISBN 0-890-96981-7
• Swanton, John R. "Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians." Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 132. (1942) ASIN B000NLBAPK

External links

• Official Caddo Nation of Oklahoma Website
• Caddo Heritage Museum
• Kiwat Hasinay Foundation - Caddo Language for Caddo People
• Online Exhibit on Caddo Culture
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Caddo (Kadohadacho)